Boxes

Alternate Names

Dots and Boxes, Squares, Square-it, Dots and Dashes, Dots, The Dot Game, Timbiriche (Mexico), Totito Chino (Guatemala), Paddocks (Australia).

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

This is a very simple children’s paper-and-pencil game that has probably very rarely been played with an actual board rather than a simple grid of dots drawn on paper. It is nonetheless extremely popular in many parts of the world and quite fun and I make no apology for its inclusion here. If one happened to be in an area where there were no paper and pencils available, it seems probable that a grid of pebbles connected by sticks of the same length, or any other materials, would suffice nicely. Also, it is easy to see a correlation of this game to more complex board games of territory acquisition such as Go.

History

Objective

Complete as many boxes as possible and then claim ownership to them with an initial. The player with the most territory at the end of the game is the winner.

Play

Alternating turns entail the placement or drawing of a single horizontal or vertical line connecting any two adjacent dots. Of course, the same line may not be drawn more than once. Each player attempts to place the last side of any square. When they do so, they may claim this square by marking it. When the grid is completely filled, each player tallies the squares they have claimed.

Strategy

Try not to draw the third side of any square, as this will allow your opponent to finish the square on the next turn and claim it.

Variations

The game can be made more challenging by allowing extra points for any larger squares made, i.e. a square made up of four or nine squares in which you have claimed all the component squares.

Eternal Triangles has been a name used for this game being played with a triangular grid of dots in which a player tries to claim ownership to as many triangles as possible. Here again, extra points could be awarded for any larger triangles composed solely of triangles you have claimed.

Another game called The Worm is played with a grid of dots as for Boxes, but has different play. In The Worm, players alternate drawing lines connecting two points, as in Boxes. In the Worm, however, the loser is defined as the first person who is forced to draw a line connecting to a previous line, thus forcing the worm back to “eat itself”.

Sprouts

Sources

  1. Pentagames. Compiled by Pentagram. 1990. Fireside, Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN 0-671-72529-7.